When in Roma: Take the "Hop On Hop Off" Bus to Get Around

    After showing my parents around Florence for a few days they were kind enough to take me to Rome for the weekend. After a quick ride on the fast train we arrived at the Roma termini and cabbed it to another Westin hotel. (my Mom is the ultimate Starwood Preferred Guest) Once we got settled into our plush accommodations we headed toward the Spanish Steps. Of course the gypsies were out in full force  rattling their empty cups and hawking their roses, counterfeit purses and other wares. If you are unfamiliar with European gypsies, here is a photo of one in action:

I have that same Tweety Bird mug at home. 

After the Spanish Steps we made our way to the Trevi fountain and I was very surprised how crowded they both were for early November, apparently the tourist season in Rome is never ending. After a few photos we found a little spot to have dinner and then we walked back to the hotel to rest up for our 7:30am tour of the Vatican.

Spanish Steps

Dad and I at the Trevi Fountain

After being picked up by our bus and getting our tickets we headed to Vatian City. Luckily our guide was on her game and we skated through the group reservation line in a matter of minutes, unlike the other few thousand people without tickets or reservations, they probably waited over an hour to get in. Suckers. Once inside we toured the Vatican museum, the Sisten Chapel and St. Peter’s Basilica. All of it was amazing and gorgeous, Catholic or not the Vatican is a must see for anyone visiting Rome.

Ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.

Sneaking more photos of the Sistine Chapel

St. Peter's Basilica

The next moring we got up and waited for the hop on hop off bus outside the hotel. After standing around for 45 minutes we realized that perhaps we were wasting time waiting so we caught a cab to the colosseum instead. While walking through the tourist traps and gypies we overheard an American girl offering guided tours for only 8 euro. We decided since none of us knew anything about the colosseum a guided tour might not be such a bad idea. Once again we skated past the lines and got a decent 45 minute tour of. (Our guide was a little hard to understand) After that we were left to our own devices. It’s kind of disgusting when you think about how barbaric the early Romans were. How many tens of thousands humans and animals died just for spectacle? Don’t get me wrong, Gladiator is one of my favorite movies (Russell Crowe is a babe!) even though according to our tour guide the movie is completely inaccurate, but I don't think I could stomach all that blood are gore in real life, maybe that's why the Roman women were always given the nose bleed seats?

After the colosseum we tried to access more of the ruins but we ended up at a dead end so we bagged that idea and went for lunch.  After more sightseeing and shopping we made our way to the Pantheon, which was not as cool as I was hoping but still impressive, minus the scaffolding covering half of the outside.

Ceiling of the Pantheon

On our last day we used the hop on hop off bus to visit the catacombs outside the city center. After a short ride we arrived at the St. Sebastian’s Basilica. Many renaissance artists featured St. Sebastian in their frescoes and paintings (many of which are hanging in the Uffizi)  so I was interested to learn more about the guy. Turns out poor St. Sebastian was killed for his faith by being shot to death with arrows and then left for the wolves to eat. Only he didn’t die. Instead he either a) staggered back to Rome and openly pronounced his faith or b) Irene of Rome went and collected his not-dead body and took him back to Rome where he pronounced his faith and possibly healed a blind girl? After all that he was finally beaten to death and his body was tossed in the sewers, later his body was relocated to the catacombs with the bodies of other persecuted Christians. The end.

Figuring out the next stop

After the catacombs we were finally tired of Rome so we headed to back to Florence. My parents spent one more night in Firenze and we had an amazing dinner at La Botte, which I will be blogging about soon. Then they headed to Milan the next day and then flew home to the States. Ciao Ciao!